Extrusion International 4-2019

29 Extrusion International 4/2019 When it comes to cars or planes con- sumers welcome lightweight con- struction parts because they reduce fuel consumption. When looking at packaging, consumers usually do not see this benefit. On the other hand, it will have to be verified if consum- ers accept packages which are not as smooth and transparent as they are now. At present, the appearance of packages has a strong influence on the buying decision. The EU is forcing circular economy for plastics. The first bans and regulations are in place. How do you feel about this? Baumeister: It is important that these regulations apply in the same way to everyone operating in the Euro- pean market. Otherwise competition would be disrupted. With equal con- ditions for everyone, nobody would have a commercial disadvantage. As positive result of regulation I would expect essentially more intensive re- search on recycling possibilities, for example, on chemical recycling. As a consequence, there would be much more serious attempts to produce better recyclates. Because we do not want to down-cycle, that means to manufacture products of lower and lower quality – ranging from film via park benches to briquettes for fuel. The issue is about manufactur- ing high-quality products from recy- clates, such as film which can come into contact with food again. This is extremely difficult to achieve with mechanical recycling due to hygiene requirements. Political specifications necessitate more complex processes for sustaining raw materials, a fact that constitutes the same obstacle for everyone. Why should film be recycled into film at all? The recycling effort is immense. You need a lot of energy. Wouldn’t it be better to make injection-moulded parts from filmwaste? Baumeister: From a short-term view, it is presently the cheapest option to turn a high-quality foil into something simple after usage, or to burn it in- stead of heating oil. In the long term, humankind must manage to become independent of crude oil because its resources are limited. At some point we will have to be able to cover our energy demand completely from re- newables. Then energy will no longer be the bottleneck and then it will be very sensible to use energy to obtain raw materials for further utilization. By applying energetically complex procedures such as chemical recycling, single-origin plastics could then be provided for high-grade applications. This way you could preserve valuable raw materials. This is the heart of the recycling economy concept: That no material will be lost. The layers of plastics in the oceans mainly consist of packaging material. Do we have too much of it? Baumeister: Meanwhile more than half of the population already live in cities. They have to be fed. That’s not possible without hygienic packag- ing. The main function of packaging is to protect higher-value commodi- ties. But it is also obvious that there is some packaging that is not necessary. The plastics industry has realised that packaging waste is a major problem. The Ceflex consortium of companies is already working hard on this prob- lem. Over 100 firms are currently par- ticipating, from raw material provid- ers via machinery manufacturers to thosewho use films tomake the pack- aging. We actively commit ourselves in three to seven working groups dealing with the design of packaging, the required machine technology and communication with the public. Wouldn’t a working circular economy be the end of organic plastics? We wouldn’t really need them. Baumeister: PLA has been in the market for several years. We have developed adequate machine tech- nology and our machines can process the material. But this material is based on corn starch and is still very expen- sive. On taking a closer look, the obvi- ous advantages – PLA is not based on crude oil, it is made from a renewable resource and is compostable – are no advantage. The Grüner Punkt (green dot) initiative does not classify PLA as recyclable because there are no closed cycles. It cannot be disposed of in the refuse bin because you can’t tell it from ordinary plastic film. They cannot be recycled together with other film materials. With regard to its properties, PLA has no comparable barrier or protection function; that’s why it does not replace conventional film. We rather see that polyester of other polyethylene types can bemade from renewable raw materials or are added to crude-oil based raw mate- rials, the so-called drop-in, i.e. not really crude-oil based, but no longer compostable. As additive, in the same way as E-10, bio-ethanol is added to petrol. In my view circular economy is not the end of bio-plastics, but they will not play an essential role in the foreseeable future. Thank you for this interview, Mr. Bau- meister. Brückner Maschinenbau GmbH & Co. KG Königsberger Str. 5-7, 83313 Siegsdorf, DE www.brueckner-maschinenbau.com K 2019: Halle 3 / C90 Ther formance ILLIG.de